Page 93 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

on things inside me that I didn’t know I had.

Hardison is a gifted and courageous public speaker, a resourceful and
relentless salesperson, a talented athlete, and a committed family man and
church member. I could write an entire book about Steve Hardison’s remarkable
work in coaching and consulting, and someday I just might. Examples of ways
that he coached me to higher levels of performance are plentiful. But I think the
greatest thing he has taught me is the value of coaching itself.

Once you open yourself up to being coached, you begin to receive the same
advantages enjoyed by great actors and athletes everywhere. When you open
yourself up to coaching, you don’t become weaker—you grow stronger. You
become more responsible for changing yourself. In The Road Less Traveled, M.
Scott Peck writes, “The problem of distinguishing what we are and what we are
not responsible for in this life is one of the greatest problems of human

existence…we must possess the willingness and the capacity to suffer continual
self-examination.”

The best coaches show us how to examine ourselves. It takes courage to ask
for coaching, but the rewards can be great. The best moments come when your
coach helps you do something you have previously been afraid to do. When
Hardison would recommend that I do something I was afraid to do, I’d say, “I
don’t know if I could do that.”

You can get coaching anytime. If coaching is appropriate for your golf or
tennis game, it is even more appropriate for the game of life. Ask someone to be
honest with you and coach you for a while. Let him check your “swing.” Let him
tell you what he sees. It’s a courageous thing to do, and it will always lead to
more self-motivation and growth.

63. Try to sell your home

Once when Steve Hardison and I were discussing a few of my old habits that
were holding me back from realizing my business goals, I blurted out to him,
“But why do I do those things? If I know they hold me back, why do I continue
to do them?”

“Because they are home to you,” he said. “They feel like home. When you
do those things, you do them because that’s what you’re comfortable doing, and
so you make yourself right at home doing them. And as they say, there’s no